I use an HP Microserver N54L running Linux Mint xfce to create iso files
from DVDs and to act as a home media server, the files are backed up to a Windows PC on my home network.

I have two backup programs, Smart Sync Pro and SyncBackSE which are too
clever for their own good. I believe the date/time kept on the Linux
machine is more accurate than that on the Windows machine. Originally I switched from Smart Sync Pro to SyncBackSE because the latter didn't get confused, however, I just went to run a backup and it wants to copy
absolutely everything.

Is anybody aware of a backup program that will just consider file path and file size in deciding whether of not a backup is needed? Would XCOPY work?

I tried to ask in the Linux group but somebody wanted to start an advocacy
war there.

If not I am going to have to fire up Visual Studio and see what I can do...

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
Thanks for teaching me the meaning of plethora, it means a lot.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-04-12, Jeff Gaines <jgnewsid@outlook.com> wrote:

I use an HP Microserver N54L running Linux Mint xfce to create iso files from DVDs and to act as a home media server, the files are backed up to a Windows PC on my home network.

I have two backup programs, Smart Sync Pro and SyncBackSE which are too clever for their own good. I believe the date/time kept on the Linux
machine is more accurate than that on the Windows machine. Originally I switched from Smart Sync Pro to SyncBackSE because the latter didn't get confused, however, I just went to run a backup and it wants to copy absolutely everything.

Is anybody aware of a backup program that will just consider file path and file size in deciding whether of not a backup is needed? Would XCOPY work?

I tried to ask in the Linux group but somebody wanted to start an advocacy war there.

If not I am going to have to fire up Visual Studio and see what I can do...

https://medium.com/@gurusquad90/rsync-for-windows-a-comprehensive-guide-91d3238a0997

This might be a solution.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Jeff Gaines <jgnewsid@outlook.com> wrote:

I use an HP Microserver N54L running Linux Mint xfce to create iso files from DVDs and to act as a home media server, the files are backed up to a Windows PC on my home network.

I have two backup programs, Smart Sync Pro and SyncBackSE which are too clever for their own good. I believe the date/time kept on the Linux
machine is more accurate than that on the Windows machine.

This is VFAT issue. NTFS is better I think.

Originally I
switched from Smart Sync Pro to SyncBackSE because the latter didn't get confused, however, I just went to run a backup and it wants to copy absolutely everything.

Is anybody aware of a backup program that will just consider file path and file size in deciding whether of not a backup is needed? Would XCOPY work?

Depends on the mechanism, but I'd always reach for rsync as a first (and
last) port of call.

I tried to ask in the Linux group but somebody wanted to start an advocacy war there.

If not I am going to have to fire up Visual Studio and see what I can do...

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 12/04/2026 in message <xn0pofy594kf2py006@news.individual.net> Jeff
Gaines wrote:

If not I am going to have to fire up Visual Studio and see what I can do...

Many thanks for the replies. I did, in fact, fire up VS and was able to
put together a synch app very quickly.

Running it highlighted the problem. Nothing to do with my backup programs, there was a link in one of the Linux directories which in Windows is a
file (*.lnk). However, Windows apps treat a Linux link as a directory so
were trying to back up files that it had discovered in the "directory". I actually discovered it when I deleted the link from Windows, it followed
the link and had deleted 7 series of Boston Legal and 5 of Buffy the
vampire shagger before I realised what was happening.

Still learning at 78....

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
The first five days after the weekend are the hardest.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 13/04/2026 in message <n44q0jFt1t9U1@mid.individual.net> Andy Burns
wrote:

Jeff Gaines wrote:

there was a link in one of the Linux directories which in Windows is a >>file (*.lnk). However, Windows apps treat a Linux link as a directory so >>were trying to back up files that it had discovered in the "directory".

.lnk files aren't hard or soft links (in a linux sense) they're shortcuts >known to windows explorer.

<https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-shllink/16cb4ca1-9339-4d0c-a68d-bf1d6cc0f943>

Windows does [now] have both hard and soft links (in the linux sense).

<https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/symbolic-links>

<https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/hard-links-and-junctions>

if you want the full set, see also .pif files

<https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/3235893/editing-pif-files-in-windows-10>

My file manager knows about these so it knows what to do if somebody
activates one!

Creating symbolic links programmatically nowadays is hard because of permissions.

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
This mess is what happens when you elect a Labour government, in the end
they will always run out of other people's money to spend.
(Margaret Thatcher on her election in 1979)

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)